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Nick Clegg will launch the pre-election process of distancing his party from the Conservatives on Monday, depicting one of the Liberal Democrats' key roles in the coalition as preventing the Tory right from pursuing a "fantasy world" outside the European Union.

Jack Wilshere has called on Arsenal's players to stem the criticism being levelled at Arsène Wenger by taking responsibilty for the club's slump. "People are criticising the manager at the moment, but there will be a time when they look at the players and ask questions of us. We don't want that, so we have to step up and be counted," he said.

Branislav Ivanovic spoke regularly of his team boasting a chance to make "history" though, on a personal level, the Serb will approach Sunday's Fifa Club World Cup final with redemption on his mind. Corinthians await at the Yokohama International stadium and for two of the quartet of Chelsea players who missed that heady night in Munich back in May through suspension the chance to make amends of sorts awaits.

Six weeks is a long time in football and not many of the Arsenal fans travelling to the Madejski Stadium on Monday will be whistling a happy tune in anticipation of another carefree 12-goal thriller like the one in the Capital One Cup.

Chelsea's hopes of finding time to prepare for Wednesday's Capital One Cup quarter-final at Leeds United have been further hampered after they were forced to put back their return flight from Japan due to noise restrictions over night-time take-offs from Toyko.

The Arsenal transfer target has previously been wanted by Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Liverpool but unfortunately he suffers from a congenital heart defect. Should teams do what Wigan Athletic and West Ham United have done and take a chance on a player who comes with obvious baggage?